Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
The latest music from Hong Kong singer Nancy Kwai sees quiet emotions unfold like a flower’s petals.
Blooms are a main theme in Kwai’s second EP, Blossoming. They are used to highlight the cycle of love from joy to heartbreak and how it arrives and departs.
“I wanted to use the language of flowers to express messages I’ve always wanted to say,” Kwai said.
The EP’s final track, “The Last Letter”, is special to Kwai because it is the first time she wrote her own lyrics.
“It feels like something truly mine. I didn’t use difficult or fancy language. I just wanted it to be honest. Writing it was like recording my feelings as they were,” the 25-year-old said. “Normally, I wouldn’t say these things out loud, not even to myself.”
The song tells the story of realising that someone you care for is in love with another person and coming to terms with letting go.
“Regrets like that are hard to say face-to-face,” Kwai said. “So I wrote them into the song. Maybe it’s my way of ... making sense of how I feel.”
Writing about love
The album’s opening track, “Cardigan”, is about an old friend – someone you might never meet again.
“For me, it was a kindergarten friend I lost touch with. That friend mattered a lot to me, and the memories we shared were happy ones,” Kwai said.
“People come and go. How we remember them – or whether we remember them at all – is up to us. Maybe this song can gently remind listeners: ‘Hey, remember that person from before?’ Maybe it’ll even inspire them to reconnect.”
Kwai’s music is driven by emotional connection: “I hope my songs can give them a sense of comfort … somewhere they feel understood or safe.”
A work in progress
As a young Hong Kong artist, Kwai said her biggest challenge is staying true to her local roots while trying to reach a global audience.
“Cantopop has always had a strong foundation and a loyal audience,” she noted. “But younger generations today are listening to so much more from the West, Japan [and] Korea.”
One of her goals is to write more in Cantonese: “Compared to Mandarin, which often leans toward more direct expression, Cantonese has a kind of elegance that I find beautiful,” she said.
